PT Compras Certified for Quality
PT Compras successfully concluded the certification process of its Quality Management System, a recognition mostly due to a teamwork effort that makes this company nowadays a national reference within its business area.
PT Compras concluded the Quality Management System Certification on the 10th of April, in accordance with norm NP EN ISO 9001:2000. This certification was awarded by the Portuguese Certification Association (APCER), within the scope of a process initiated in 2005, which lead to an audit of all company procedures by an external audit team.
As referred by Rui Pedro Soares, the PT Compras director responsible for the areas of Marketing, Quality and Strategic Planning of Procurement Categories, “this certification evidences the success achieved by PT Compras regarding the two main aspects on which its activity is based – ensuring the transparency and accuracy of negotiation processes, in order to uncompromisingly defend the good name of the Portugal Telecom Group, and procurement optimization within a Total Cost of Ownership perspective”.
An additional reason for satisfaction was the identification, by the APCER, of the process of “Strategic Planning of Procurement Categories” as an organization strength for the year of 2006. This innovative process, headed by PT Compras, consisted grouping procurement into categories, with a multidisciplinary team consisting of PT Compras, PT Communications, TMN and PTM representatives having been formed for each category. These teams have defined strategies for each category, identified the list of suppliers and main negotiation levers, calculated TCO for each category and identified cost/service optimization mechanisms. Over 100 PT collaborators participated in this initiative and, after two months of work, 88 optimization initiatives were identified, a rigorous schedule having being established for their execution.
As explained by Cassiano Rodrigues, Director of Quality and Continuous Improvement of PT Compras and responsible for implementation of the Quality Management System (QMS), “it is important to highlight all procedures implemented in Negotiation areas, particularly those directly influencing the PT Compras core, as well as the necessary doubled effort for effective divulgation of the QMS”. Cassiano Rodrigues also emphasised the importance of teamwork in this process – “the entire company deserves to be congratulated, since this is mostly the result of an effort involving all PT Compras collaborators”, he underlined. It should be highlighted that “obtaining this certification represents the beginning of a process and not its end”. In this way, “PT Compras will continue to work towards continuous improvement of its services, always focusing on increasing global client satisfaction”.